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CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 5 

Book Review: Politics is for Power: How to Move Beyond 

Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change by 

Eitan Hersh 

Darron Cunanan 

Department of Sociology 

California State University, Los Angeles 

 

What does politics mean to you? Is it spending hours 

consuming news and arguing with people on the internet about 

social issues? Or is it about gaining power, multiplying your vote, 

and making a real change in your community? To Eitan Hersh 

(2020:3), “participating in politics by obsessive news-following 

and online ‘slacktivism’” is not politics, but what he considers as 

political hobbyism. In his book Politics is for Power: How to 

Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real 

Change, Hersh argues that politics should be about seeking power 

and influence to make meaningful change, rather than for 

expressing one’s values and for one’s self-gratification. Hersh 

shows an alternative way to do politics.  

Eitan Hersh is an Associate Professor in the Department 

of Political Science at Tufts University where he teaches on 

American politics. As a data analyst, he studies civic participation, 

voting rights, and U.S. elections. His take on our political climate 

is relevant to sociological research as it addresses sociological 

concerns on political participation, social movements, media, and 

privilege.  

Hersh’s book is packed with historical context, statistical 

data, and real-life stories of volunteers engaging in politics, all of 

which highlight the impact of political hobbyism on American 

politics. The author contrasts between shallow, unproductive 

activities such as consuming news, participating in partisanship, 

using social media, making donations, and signing petitions, and 

more meaningful activities like deep canvasing and local 

organizing. Hersh argues that most people engage in politics as a 

shallow hobby and for knowledge-seeking rather than as power-

seeking activity. The author argues that treating politics as a hobby 

is counterproductive because political hobbyists practice the 

wrong skills, seek the wrong news, and pursue wrong goals. The 

book ends with Hersh sharing his own journey of political 



Book Review | Cunanan 2 

 

CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 5 

participation and offering tips to readers on how they can start 

engaging in politics for power. He encourages readers to redirect 

their attention from social media and national news to learning 

about their local community and finding ways to support it. 

Ultimately, Hersh calls on the readers to take action and become 

more actively engaged in politics.   

The strength of Hersh’s argument comes in the success 

stories of people in local politics. He writes about men and women 

who are 19 to 98 years old. He tells the stories of people like Drew, 

a college student who establishes a precinct organization to get 

students involved in politics beyond the campus; Lisa, a woman 

who travels from Brooklyn to Staten Island to have deep, open 

conversations with complete strangers; and Naakh, a man who 

commands a thousand votes amassed through his history of 

assisting retired immigrants in his neighborhood. The experiences 

in local politics Hersh highlights in this book shows that anyone 

can make a difference. These accounts also strike at the heart of 

his argument: change starts with people talking to others within 

their community.  

This book is an inspiring read for anyone who is interested 

in learning what amassing real political power means - which 

certainly includes professors and students wanting to increase 

their own knowledge, especially for sociological relevance. If you 

are spending hours of your day thinking about politics but find it 

purposeless and fruitless, Politics is for Power “is about you” 

(Hersh 2020:5). 

 

REFERENCES 

Hersh, Eitan. 2020. Politics Is For Power: How to Move Beyond 

Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real 

Change. New York, NY: Scribner.  

 


